Ohio resident Chuck Parete likes blackjack.
That’s what attracted him to Presque Isle Downs & Casino while his wife and his sister-in-law played the slot machines.
Parete, 65, of North Royalton, said he knows the odds favor the house, but sitting at a table with other gamblers was a way to pass the time.
“You’re not going to win a lot of money playing blackjack unless you put down a big bet and hit a cold dealer and then get up and leave,” said Parete, a semiretired business analyst who deals cards at private parties.
Whether they’re in it to win it or not, gamblers such as Parete have been doubling down on their luck and rolling the dice at the Erie-area casino for one year now.
Presque Isle Downs, 8199 Perry Highway in Summit Township, and the other two casinos in the Pittsburgh-area market offered blackjack, roulette, craps and other table games for the first time on July 8, 2010. The state’s seven other casinos started offering the games in subsequent weeks.
Presque Isle Downs is the smallest player in the Pennsylvania casino field, in terms of both the 44 table games and the gross revenue from the games, which totaled $18.3 million from their opening through May 2011, the latest month for which figures are available.
Compare that to the state’s top table games revenue producer, Parx Casino near Philadelphia, which has raised $80.4 million in revenue during the same period and now offers 171 table games.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, which regulates the state’s casino industry, isn’t commenting on an individual casino’s performance. But Kevin O’Toole, the board’s executive director, said in a statement, “It has been a successful first year for table games at all casinos, and our expectations for both revenue and jobs have been met.”
About 6,000 jobs were added statewide a year ago with the introduction of the games, the board said.
Never enough
Fred Buro, the casino’s general manager, said Erie is among the smallest casino markets. It doesn’t help that amid high gas prices, construction and traffic have clogged Interstates 90 and 79 this summer, he said.
But Buro said the casino is doing well in attracting customers despite that temporary inconvenience on the interstates.
“You always wish (revenue’s) higher. Enough never seems to be enough, not in this world anyway,” Buro said.
“The silver lining is that table games brought an additional 500 jobs to this community,” with most of the employees from Erie County, he said.
The casino’s 1,060 employees include 176 dealers and 92 other employees, such as supervisors, who are directly involved in table games operations, casino officials said.
The rest are ancillary employees for table games, such as food-and-beverage workers and security staff, said Jennifer See, the casino’s spokeswoman.
Among their other duties, security and other employees look for cheats. And if the employees don’t see it, the surveillance cameras will, said Richard McGarvey, a gaming board spokesman.
McGarvey said every casino has cheats, but he said the problem has been only sporadic. When Pennsylvania State Police officers assigned to the casino file charges, it’s usually against gamblers “capping” their bets — trying to add one or more chips to a wager when they see a winning hand or roll of the dice.
Promotions and new hires
Buro said 29 of the dealers hired a year ago have been promoted to higher-paying supervisory jobs. The dealers themselves are paid a starting base salary of $4 an hour and benefits, plus tips on which much of their income is based.
The casino is hiring 50 more dealers who went through training and are getting their licenses from the gaming board.
Those added employees will help this summer and stay on when the casino adds a poker room, assuming that gaming regulators approve the planned second-floor room with nine poker tables.
The casino hopes to open the poker room this fall, Buro said. In the poker room, gamblers would play against each other rather than against the house.
Prospective poker-room dealers will get another four weeks of training if the gaming board approves the application, See said. They will deal the games, plus maintain the poker chips and the money for the games, she said.
Another way to play
The games provide another entertainment option for Erie County’s $920 million annual tourism industry.
John Oliver, president of Visit Erie, the county’s tourism promotion agency, said the table games at Presque Isle Downs level the playing field with the casinos run by Native Americans in New York state. The closest is Seneca Allegany Casino, in Salamanca, N.Y., about 70 miles northeast of Erie.
“Any time we can attract more visitors to Erie County, it’s going to have a positive economic impact — not just in the casino, but at other businesses in the community,” Oliver said.
An example of the casino likely creating spinoff development is across the street from the casino, said Nancy Agostine, Summit zoning administrator.
A 5,100-square-foot Sheetz convenience store, 8180 Perry Highway, with 14 gas pumps and an automatic carwash is being planned, she said.
And just south of that planned development, Brockport, N.Y.-based Reid Stores opened a Crosby’s gas station and convenience store at 8030 Perry Highway that includes a Tim Hortons doughnut shop, said Marj Hudak, the township’s assistant zoning administrator.
An old gas station was torn down and a new building went up, said Doug Galli, vice president and general manager of Reid Stores. The decision to rebuild was based on the location’s proximity to I-90 and to the casino, Galli said.
The casino thus far also has raised a total of $2.6 million in state taxes from table games and an additional $365,385 for a local tax. That local pot is building for a proposed community college that has lost momentum. The money will be used for other economic-development projects if the college is not established.
Tough to tell
It’s not always easy to measure how much business is being spun off from the casino.
Chris N. Scott Jr., vice president of Scott Enterprises Inc., said two of the company’s hotels, the Hilton Garden Inn and Courtyard by Marriott, have a combined four suites for the casino’s big-time gamblers.
“There are definitely high rollers that come in here and bet a lot of money,” he said.
But Scott said it’s tough to gauge how much other business his company’s hotels and restaurants are getting from table games.
“People make individual reservations, so we don’t always know why they’re coming,” Scott said. “Are they selling vacuum cleaners, or are they gambling?”
Scott said he thinks the casino had a greater effect on his company’s businesses when it first opened in February 2007 with 2,000 slot machines. The casino now has 2,070 slots.
“It’s definitely helped,” he said, referring to table games. “But I don’t know that it’s of huge significance. … It hasn’t been any kind of grand slam or anything like that.”
Closer to home
Erie resident Karen Catania, 51, isn’t a high roller. But before Presque Isle Downs offered table games, she traveled to casinos in Salamanca and Niagara Falls to play the roulette wheel.
For the past year, she’s been able to enjoy the game, along with thoroughbred horse racing, three or four times a month much closer to home.
Catania, the owner of a hair salon, said table games are a welcome addition to the casino, with one caveat.
“If you’re responsible and pay your bills first,” she said.
“My theory is you go up there with a certain amount of money and you use it as entertainment. You should have the money to lose, like paying for a round of golf or going bowling,” she said.
The Erie-area casino, she said, needed to add the games so it could compete with casinos that already had them.
Catania last week went with a friend to the casino with $50 to spend, and walked out with about $75.
“Did I make a lot of money? No. But I had fun in that hour and 20 minutes that I was there,” she said. “It’s all close to home, and it’s entertainment.”
JOHN GUERRIERO can be reached at 870-1690 or by e-mail.
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